Mr. Anti-pork busting:
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, the Republican from Mississippi, has had it to here with Porkbusters and other critics of pork barrel spending like Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, who think the federal government has better things to do with $700 million of the taxpayers money than tear up a just-repaired coastal rail line and replace it with a new highway. Apparently the plan is that a new rail line would be built just north of the existing one.
Said Lott when asked by an AP reporter about criticism of the project he has long championed and which was just funded in a Senate Appropriations Committee bill to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as additional Hurricane Katrina relief:“I’ll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I’m getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina. We in Mississippi have not asked for more than we deserve. We’ve been very reasonable.”
http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2006/04/lott-says-hes-damn-tired-of.html
Fucking waaaaaaaaaaaaah! It’s good to have that kind of “trouble”.
He once suggested an “electrified fence” to stop illegals crossing the southern border:
Sen. Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., was talking to reporters Wednesday about the immigration bill, when he said, “If the answer is ‘build a fence’ I’ve got two goats on my place in Mississippi. There ain’t no fence big enough, high enough, strong enough, that you can keep those goats in that fence.”
“Now people are at least as smart as goats,” Lott continued. “Maybe not as agile. Build a fence. We should have a virtual fence. Now one of the ways I keep those goats in the fence is I electrified them. Once they got popped a couple of times they quit trying to jump it.”
“I’m not proposing an electrified goat fence,” Lott added quickly, “I’m just trying, there’s an analogy there.”
There’s an analogy about heads and asses too, Lott.
I suggest building a wall with thousands of Border Agents, submachine guns, trenches, land mines, and guard towers, not a damned “goat fence”.
And he bleated: “Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem”, when millions of American citizens, including Lott’s Republican colleagues, confronted his support of the “Shamnesty” Bill, which was soundly defeated.
There’s much speculation about his replacement:
Sen. Thad Cochran, a conservative and the top GOP appropriator, is a safe bet for the seat but rumors still abound that a retirement announcement is imminent. Cochran has deflated retirement speculation throughout the year and actively raised campaign funds.
And:
One Lott supporter in the know said he hoped GOP Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour would appoint Rep. Chip Pickering to the post, keeping the seat in the hands of Republicans, at least in the short term.
Lott’s departure would also leave a vacancy in the Senate GOP Leadership. Lott is currently the Republican Whip, the No. 2 slot behind Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. We’re told Lott is backing Arizona Republican Jon Kyl to replace him, but that will be determined by secret ballot within the Republican caucus.
Link: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/26/480335.aspx
I’m not impressed with any of the choices, but we’ll see who takes the seat.